September 12/07 7:01 am - Tour de l'Avenir Stage 7 Report & Results

Kris Westwood has provided a report on today's stage of the Tour de l'Avenir stage race in France, which Canada's U23 is competing at (results posted earlier).

Christian Meier of the Canadian team maintained his 11th position in the overall standings in the first mountainous stage of the Tour de l'Avenir today.

The 175-km seventh stage of the Tour took the riders from Cérilly to finish at altitude in Super-Besse. Dutch rider Bauke Mollema split the field over the final two climbs, and gained enough time to take over the yellow leader's jersey from Tony Martin of the German team. Italian Dario Cataldo won the stage.

Meier began the final climb as part of a peloton that had been whittled down on the narrow and hilly roads of the Auvergne region of central France, but didn't have great legs on the final climb to the finish and ended the stage in 35th position, two-and-a-half minutes behind the winner. Despite this, Meier still sits in 11th position overall, 3:49 behind the yellow jersey.

Earlier in the stage Meier broke away on his own, but he was never allowed to gain more than 20 seconds over the field and was soon caught by the peloton. The other five riders of the Canadian team all contributed to helping Meier reach the final climb in the main field, and finished the stage well behind.

The climbing continues in tomorrow's 134-km stage from Besse-et-Saint-Anastaise to Brioude.